While artificial intelligence continues to transform industries, some businesses still depend on something technology cannot replicate: human connection. On the latest episode of Business Trends Today, Kelly Talal, a business leader with more than 14 years of experience in advertising and marketing, believes that reality creates lasting opportunities for entrepreneurs willing to invest in service-based businesses.
Talal owns and operates three Pigtails & Crewcuts children’s hair salons in metro Atlanta while maintaining a full-time leadership role in advertising and marketing. While the franchise has grown to roughly 80 locations across more than 20 states, she said she never expected the two careers to compete.
Balancing corporate & franchise
The leadership skills she developed managing corporate teams, she said, have helped her identify talent, develop employees and strengthen salon operations. After opening her first location in June 2025, she promoted a store manager who was ready to take on greater responsibility. Then, when an opportunity arose to acquire two additional salons, she trusted her team to support the expansion.
Owning a small business has also sharpened her view of her corporate clients’ challenges, Talal said. Watching every dollar, solving day-to-day operational problems and protecting profit margins gave her a new lens on the frustrations business owners bring to her advertising work, something she said she couldn’t have understood from the corporate side alone.
Human touch vs. IA
That focus on the human side of the business, according to Talal, is also why she isn’t worried about AI displacing service-based businesses like hers.
Additionally, she drew a parallel to healthcare, in which patients may want AI-driven data to inform their treatment, but few want a machine administering it. She also argues that businesses built on trust, personal care and customer experience are the ones best positioned to withstand automation.
That belief shaped her decision to buy into an existing franchise rather than start from scratch. With no prior experience in the salon industry, Talal said she valued Pigtails & Crewcuts’ training, operational support and established playbook. She researched competing brands, talked to current franchise owners and read customer reviews before settling on the concept.
"It is just so nice to have the support there. It's a built-in roadmap for you.”
All three of her locations were existing salons rather than new build-outs, a strategy she said reduced startup risk and let her focus on improving operations and developing staff. As her confidence in the business has grown, she’s begun exploring new locations elsewhere in Georgia.
Beyond the financials, Talal said the most rewarding part of ownership has been building career paths for her employees. Identifying future leaders and investing in their growth, she said, has become a driving force behind her expansion plans, and it’s part of why she eventually wants to buy into another business, whether that’s another Pigtails & Crewcuts or something new entirely.
For now, Talal said she has no plans to leave her corporate career, and she and her husband are reinvesting the salons’ profits into future growth rather than living off them. But she expects that to change eventually, with full-time entrepreneurship as the long-term goal once the timing is right.
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